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==How do I join?==
 
==How do I join?==
 
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Revision as of 10:56, 22 April 2009

The USSF Writers Network is part of the Communications Working Group for the US Social Forum. We will work to help raise public awareness about the USSF and the issues it addresses among the many diverse groups that make up our country. We aim to:

  • broaden participation in the USSF, particularly among groups most excluded from mainstream politics,
  • expand networks among diverse media practitioners in a collaborative effort to disseminate information and stories about the USSF, and
  • increase awareness and understandings of the global movement of which the USSF is part.

Who we are:

  • Writers (amateur and professional)
  • Poets
  • Visual artists
  • Journalists
  • Sociologists without Borders
  • Activists
  • Ordinary people

We are responding to and helping build a movement for social justice in the United States and to support the World Social Forum process. Our aim is to help the exploited, excluded, downtrodden, hopeless, underpaid, overworked, unemployed--and all those who need hope—see that Another World is Possible. The U.S. Social Forum is a way we can, together, make that world a reality.

What do I do?

By committing just a few hours per month, you can be a part of our historic effort to build the movement for social justice in the U.S.

Participants in the Writers Network commit to do the following actions in support of the USSF:

  • Write at least one essay, op-ed, news analysis, or other piece per month for general audience news sources to help educate the wider U.S. public about the USSF, the people it involves, and/or the issues it addresses; and/or
  • Write at least three analyses, poems, opinion pieces, announcements, etc. in specialized publications targeting particular audiences of activists, community gruops, professionals, or other publics who should know about the USSF and/or who can contribute to the work of the USSF; &
  • Following the USSF, write and speak to inform the U.S. public about the USSF’s discussions ideas for advancing the goals of social movement cooperation and progressive social change in this country; &
  • Encourage friends and colleagues to make financial contributions to support the USSF. The costs of this meeting are high, and organizers also seek to raise money to increase participation from low-income activists. Costs will be met through registration fees, donations, and corporate or foundation grants; &/or
  • Speak to journalists and/or activists in participants’ own communities about the USSF and encourage local participation in and/or media coverage of the forum;

Writers Network members will receive regular updates on relevant developments in USSF planning, ideas for stories, and suggestions for finding publication outlets for material.

How do I join?